It's red, white, blueberry ice-cream time in Indy

Jul. 8, 2013

Homemade blueberry ice cream is the star of this mini Fourth of July parfait, framed by red plum slices and topped with a little vanilla ice cream ... and of course, a blueberry. / Carolyn Doyle / The Star

Fresh Indiana blueberries, waiting to become blueberry sauce, the first step in making ice cream. Don't have fresh? You can use frozen berries instead. / Carolyn Doyle / The Star

Blueberry ice cream, right after churning. The cookbooks say homemade ice cream should be frozen for 30-60 minutes before eating. (Not at my house!) / Carolyn Doyle / The Star

More

ADVERTISEMENT

This week’s recipe has something for the haves and the have-nots: Those who have ice-cream makers … and those who do not.

Fresh Indiana blueberries are available at area farmers markets now, and in honor of the upcoming Fourth of July holiday, I wanted to use them in a red-and-white-blue dessert that would taste good on a hot day.

By simmering fresh blueberries down into a quickly made sauce, the flavor gets more intense, and the sugars concentrate to up the sweetness (and when has THAT been a bad thing?)

If you do not have an ice-cream maker, you can buy some vanilla ice cream and make patriotic sundaes by topping scoops with the blueberry sauce below and some fresh Indiana strawberries for a dessert of which our Founding Fathers would surely have approved. (No strawberries? Try cherries, red raspberries or sliced red plums.)

If, like me, you have one of those little tabletop ice-cream makers (the kind in which the inner liner needs to be frozen at least 24 hours in advance) … or any other kind of ice cream maker … well, then you are all set to use your blueberry sauce to make 1 ½ pints of blueberry ice cream. Topped with whipped cream and garnished with blueberries and your red fruit of choice, it is just too good to make only once a year. (If you have a bigger ice cream maker, the recipe can be doubled to make 1 ½ quarts.)

Blueberry Sauce

1½ cups (7 oz.) fresh blueberries (can use frozen)

¼ cup pure maple syrup (NOT pancake syrup), or honey

½ a cinnamon stick (optional)

1. Place the blueberries and the maple syrup in a wide 1-quart saucepan. Add the cinnamon stick, if using. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the blueberries begin to give up their juices and the sauce begins to boil (2-5 minutes).

2. Stirring frequently, reduce heat to medium and cook at a high simmer until the berries break down and the liquid in the pan is reduced to a thick sauce. Adjust heat to prevent burning as the sauce reduces. (This can take 10-20 minutes.) Once sauce has thickened, cool to room temperature. Remove cinnamon stick, then refrigerate until needed.

NOTE: As you are cooking the blueberries down to a syrup, be careful to avoid splatters — the sugary mixture will stick and burn.

Measure out ingredients and get everything ready for an ice bath (a large bowl half-filled with ice and ice water). You can keep the bowl of water in the fridge, and your ice cubes all ready in the freezer. Also put a 4-qt. bowl (metal is best) in the fridge or freezer.

In a heavy 2-qt saucepan over medium heat, pour the whole milk; bring just to the boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Remove pan from heat.

Set up your ice bath and have your cold bowl ready.

In a heat-proof mixing bowl whisk the two egg yolks with the sugar and honey until thick and yellow. Gradually pour in about ¼ cup of the hot milk, whisking constantly. Slowly add another ¼ cup, and then another, continuing to whisk as you gradually build up the temperature of those yolks without scrambling them. (In culinary class, they call this “tempering.”)

Once you’ve added about half the hot milk to the yolks, you should be safe; pour the yolk mixture into the saucepan with the remaining hot milk and return to medium heat.

Your goal now is to slowly thicken the mixture as you bring it up to temperature. Using a whisk (or a wooden spoon), stir continually, scraping the bottom of the pan frequently to prevent the mixture burning or curdling. Turn the heat down to medium-low if necessary.

You should notice the ice cream base beginning to thicken after a few minutes. Monitor the temperature; you want it to hit 170-175 degrees F. (Yes, a thermometer is the way to tell). This evicts any salmonella bacteria that might have been hanging around.

Note: You do NOT want your mixture to go about 175 degrees; it can very easily curdle at that point.

The mixture should now be thick enough that, when the pan is tilted to one side, it coats the bottom of the pan, and you can draw a line in it with your spoon.

Once this custard mixture has thickened and reached 170 degrees F., remove immediately from heat. Transfer ice cream base to the cold bowl (pour through a strainer if desired). Place the bowl in your prepared ice bath and stir to cool the mixture down (don’t slosh any water into it, though!)

Stir in the heavy cream, then the vanilla.

Cover mixture and refrigerate several hours, or overnight.

Freezing the ice cream

Set up your ice cream maker according to the maufacturer’s instructions. Remove the cold blueberry sauce and the cold ice cream base from fridge. Combine the two, stirring to blend.

Add the blueberry ice cream mixture to your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. (I start mine up, then pour in the mixture and let it churn 20-25 minutes.)

Upping the berry quotient: I like my fruit ice creams to be punctuated with the occasional icy berry, so I toss a few fresh berries (1/4 a cup of so) into the mixture after I pour it into the ice cream maker.

Once the ice cream reaches soft-serve consistency, you have a couple of choices.

1) Scoop into shallow container(s) and freeze for 30-60 minutes to firm up before serving.

2) Pull COLD bowls and spoons out of the freezer, where you stashed them hours ago, and scoop that ice cream to enjoy.

(If you opt to scoop the fresh ice cream into room-temperature bowls, it will melt almost immediately. So eat fast.)

Garnish little scoops of ice cream with fresh strawberries and additional blueberries plus whipped cream for a red, white and blue treat on July 4 or any time.

Space and time

• Space

Homemade ice cream has less air incorporated into it, so each serving weighs more than ordinary ice cream. This means you can serve smaller scoops of homemade, and they will weigh as much as larger scoops of some other types.

• Time

Timing is important in both comedy and ice cream making.

In an ideal world, the day before you wanted to make ice cream, you would

1) Make your blueberry sauce and stash it in the fridge.

2) Make your ice cream base, cool in an ice bath, then stash in the fridge.

3) And if you have a tabletop ice cream maker like mine, you would freeze your insert 24 hours before you want to make ice cream.

In the real world … if you skipped step 3, get ready to go buy some ice cream. But if you need to slice some time off the other two steps, try this:

1) As soon as you start thinking about ice cream, stash 1 or 2 metal mixing bowls in your freezer. Make sure you have plenty of ice on hand. And clean out your sink.

2) Once you’ve made the blueberry sauce, take one of the cold metal bowls from the freezer and CAREFULLY pour the sauce in. Stir.

3) Dump a tray or two of ice (or some frozen plastic freezer packs) into your sink. Fill with 2-3 inches of cold water.

4) Now carefully place your metal bowl in this improvised ice bath and continue to stir as it tries to float around. After a few minutes, the mixture should begin to cool down. Once it’s lukewarm, stash the berry sauce, uncovered, in the freezer for 30 minutes or so to continue the rapid cool-down. Then stir, cover and place in fridge.

5) You can do something similar with your ice cream base … pour it into a cold metal bowl before cooling it in the ice bath; once it’s lukewarm, let it take a half-hour siesta in the freezer before transferring to the fridge.

If you’re following these instructions, you’re probably in a hurry. Even so, remember to be careful: It’s easy to splash water from the ice bath into your bowl, or to slosh the uncovered sauce or base around in your freezer. You don’t want that.

Whichever chilling method you choose — prudent or frantic last-minute — once your sauce and your base have reached 33-40 degrees, they should be cold enough to combine and add to your ice cream maker.

And that is a good thing.

At the market this week

With July 4th coming up, the local farmers markets are exploding with a dazzling selection of colorful local produce. Indiana peaches, blueberries and rhubarb are available, along with wax beans and the first of the heirloom tomato varieties. A variety of greens, including collards, leaf lettuces, kale and intriguing choices such tatsoi (spinach-like but peppery), purslane (a tender addition to salads) and sorrel, are also available. Salad favorites abound: beets, bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, cucumbers, potatoes and radishes, to name several. Beautiful green and purple basil is available, along with dill, green beans, peas, kohlrabi, onions and a variety of colorful squashes. Have a safe and happy holiday!